A contract worker and two others working on decommissioned submarine INS Vagli at Chennai Port Trust.
Chennai: In a tragic incident, a contract worker was killed and two others were injured while working on decommissioned submarine INS Vagli at Chennai Port Trust on Monday. According to sources, one worker, Mahendran, is dead, while the condition of two others, Jayakumar and Gowrishankar remains unknown.
Sources said the workers were supposed to do some work on the exterior, when Mahendran tried to look into the submarine by opening a hatch. “Mahendran’s cellphone fell down and so he entered the vessel to retrieve it. The others followed him and were trapped,” a port source said.
A senior port official said Indian Navy swung into action and rescued the workers. The submarine belonging to Vela-class has been docked inside the port near Chokkani Jetty for the last 10 months.
The Indian Navy had handed over the vessel to the TN tourism department to station it at the planned Tamil Nadu Maritime Heritage Museum in Mahabalipuram.
A senior official at the tourism department said a few contract labourers were trying to fix some hooks to the vessel from outside, so that the submarine could be towed to Mahabalipuram from Chennai.
“The labourers could have fallen while trying to fix the hooks,” the official added. It may be noted that chief minister J. Jayalalithaa had issued orders in June 2012 to establish the museum.
( Source : dc )
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